Wah wah wee wah king in the castle! The Canucks won 3-1 Wednesday night in Nashville, giving them their third three-game winning streak of the season, and first since November. Don’t look now, but the Canucks are in a playoff spot yet again. If you wanna see the highlights, they are:
While not an utterly convincing win, the Canucks did enough against the Preds to pull out the victory. The Swedish Mafia line cashed in with goals from Hoglander and the first-ever from Karlsson in the NHL, Hughes picked up a couple of apples, and Demko rebounded to form after a few rough outings/season-to-date. Demko was great, especially in the third when some lapses from the Canucks put the game squarely on his shoulders.
“He’s a world-class goalie,” said Tocchet. “I have a ton of confidence in the guy and that’s why we started him tonight. He was awesome.”
“I kind of needed that one,” Demko said. “It felt good to be on the winning side here, and, you know, feel like myself a little bit again. It always feels good when you win. Yeah, a lot to build off. I think we've been doing some good things. So it's really just paying attention to detail, knowing our identity as a team, playing as five all three zones. . . just the cliche stuff.”
The line of Pettersson, Karlsson, and Hoglander did the damage for the team, potting two even strength goals and showing some life for the team. It was Karlsson’s first in the NHL, and that’s always a special moment.
“Of course, you always want to score, but you have to do other things to get there,” Karlsson said. “It was just nice to see it went in. It was like a relief. You score the first and just try to keep going.”
“It was cool,” he added. “I waited for that one. Great pass by Myers and nice to see it go in”
Tocchet was happy with that line. Maybe the countrymen can help pull each other up to another level? Hoglander played well, so hopefully the goal pulled him out of the doghouse a little bit.
“It was nice to see Hoggy, great shot and he had some jump tonight,” said Tocchet. “And Karlsson is good around the net and it’s good to see that line producing for us.”
If you haven’t heard, there’s a lot of chatter and noise outside the room at the moment. Clearly the players inside the room are living through the actual divide and the media storm. So, credit to them for pushing that aside and battling through it (though JT Miller didn’t have his best game, but whatever). It’s a time when, oddly enough, the room has to come together.
“Each individual just has to bring his game, and collectively as a group, rely on each other,” stressed Tocchet. “There’s a lot of noise and packs of positive people can overcome a lot of outside stuff.”
He was happy with how the team responded. It was a solid road win, and this three game streak is something they can hopefully build off.
“We grinded away,” added Tocchet. “We managed the puck for the most part. They made a push and we held our ground and we’ve just got to keep moving this thing along.”
While the Canucks have been falling down the standings amidst all this drama and division… if you look at where they sit in the standings overall, it’s not the worst. They’ve level with Tampa and Boston on points, and just four points below the Avs and Kings. If you’re a glass half full person, you might see them playing with all this baggage yet keeping themselves in the hunt.
Any which way, the Canucks take their little winning streak to Dallas on Friday night for a showdown with the Stars.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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